The 2022 Beach Volleyball World Championships are under a week away. Set to be held from June 10 through 19 in Rome, the highlight of the beach volleyball season will feature the world’s best 48 teams per gender and here is a close look at the most interesting women’s clashes to look forward to during the pool stage of the tournament.
Beach Volleyball World Champs 2022
Rome 2022: Pools where everything is possible
A close look at interesting rivalries in women’s World Championship pool play
Published 07:31, 04 Jun 2022
Kelly Cheng in action at the Rosarito Elite16
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![POOL 16.9 WOMEN[51]](https://images.volleyballworld.com/image/private/t_editorial_landscape_12_desktop_3x/f_png/fivb-prd/z18f3c03mbmclzn8qnu7.png)
One pool fans should definitely keep an eye on is Pool E. Two of the teams feature high-level players from recent seasons along with their new partners. There is a pair of young talents who have been showing gradual improvement. And there is an Italian duo, who will have the extra advantage of playing on home sand, in front of the home crowd.
The highest-seeded pair in the pool consists of Kelly Cheng, who made headlines by qualifying for the Olympic Games under her maiden name Claes, along with Sarah Sponcil last season, and her current teammate Betsi Flint. The new American duo had a successful Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour debut at the Rosarito Elite16 in March and made it to the semifinals. However, at their second Tour appearance at the Jurmala Elite16 this week, they failed to make it past the pool stage. Cheng and Flint medalled at both stops on USA’s ATP Tour so far this season, picking up bronze in Austin and gold in New Orleans.
At Rome 2022, Cheng and Flint will have a Pool E encounter with Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson and Sophie Bukovec, another new pairing, formed at the start of this season upon the retirement of Brandie’s previous partner Heather Bansley. The new team are still looking to find their rhythm. There has certainly been an improvement from their Tlaxcala Challenge result, however, when they failed to make it past the qualifiers, and the fifth place at the Itapema Challenge or the ninth place at the Kuşadası Challenge are good examples of that.
Although still in their early 20s, Pool E’s third seeded team Esmee Bobner and Zoe Verge-Depre of Switzerland have already played together for a few seasons and shown they are capable of upsetting the big teams. Bobner and Verge-Depre have only been able to progress among the last 16 teams once on the Beach Pro Tour this season, when they reached the Tlaxcala quarterfinals, but they have not returned empty-handed from any of their five participations so far, scoring at least one win at each tournament.
Finally, the pairing of 25-year-old Valentina Cali and 17-year-old Margherita Tega might be the clear underdogs in Pool E. However, inspiration coming from the home fans on the stands at Foro Italico could prove crucial as the Italians meet face to face with their strong opponents.
Pool H is another one to look out for, as it features as many as five Tokyo Olympians and is led by silver medallists Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho Del Solar. After finishing ninth in Rosarito, the Australians picked up speed for a fourth-place finish at the Doha Challenge, silver in Kuşadası and a fifth at last week’s Ostrava Elite16.
At Rome 2022, Clancy and Mariafe will meet again with one of the teams they defeated in straight sets at the Olympics, Leila Martinez and Lidy Echeverria. The Cuban Olympians failed to win a match at their only Beach Pro Tour appearance so far, in Tlaxcala in March, but topped the podium at a NORCECA Continental Tour event in May. It remains to be seen what kind of shape they will be in as they arrive in Italy next week, but it is interesting to see whether they will be able to do at least as well as their ninth place at the Olympics.
Kelly Cheng’s Olympic partner Sarah Sponcil has also been competing with a new teammate. She and Terese Cannon are the second-seeded pair in Pool H. The American duo have achieved mixed results on the Beach Pro Tour, anywhere from not being able to go past the pool stage in Tlaxcala to celebrating the bronze in Kuşadası. Their head-to-head encounter with Mariafe and Clancy in Ostrava was resolved in a tie-breaker, with the Aussies claiming a comeback victory.
Pool I is another grouping where everything is possible. It is led by strong Brazilians Taiana Lima and Hegeile Almeida, in the company of last week’s surprise Ostrava winners Cinja Tillmann and Svenja Muller of Germany, currently number four in the FIVB World Ranking. 2021 Asian champions Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee and Taravadee Naraphornrapat of Thailand and Italy’s Viktoria Orsi Toth and Reka Orsi Toth complete the pool. The Italians have already claimed a couple of Futures bronze medals as a team on the Beach Pro Tour.
Pool C offers an exciting remake of last year’s bronze medal match at Tokyo 2020. Latvia’s Anastasija Kravcenoka and Tina Graudina, who made it to the Rosarito podium with a silver, went on to finish fifth in Ostrava, but failed to overcome the tough competition in the pool stage at home in Jurmala. They will be keen to get back at Switzerland’s Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre for the straight-set loss they suffered in the Japanese sand at the Games.
The Swiss have taken advantage of more opportunities to compete on the Beach Pro Tour this year and have shown steady progress from ninth in Tlaxcala and Rosarito to fifth in Doha and fourth in Ostrava. Unlike their Latvian opponents, Heidrich and Verge-Depre managed to advance to this week’s Jurmala Elite16 quarterfinals.
An interesting and unusual collaboration between Emily Day and Emily Stockman will point the attention to Pool G action in Rome. Day started the season with Olympic champion April Ross as a partner, while Stockman paired up first with Lauren Fendrick and then with Megan Kraft. However, the two Emilys enjoyed their participation at the Austin AVP Tour event together, winning bronze, and decided to appear as a team at the World Championships. The Americans are expected to be Brazilians Talita Antunes and Rebecca Silva’s toughest rivals in the pool.
